The FinePix S9100 from Fujifilm offers quite a few likeable features for an advanced-level digital camera, and its image quality is generally very good. Best of all, however, is its price -- you sometimes can find this model for around $400. Very few advanced digital cameras can match the FinePix S9100's feature list at that price.

For the most part, image quality is very good with the FinePix 9100; you might notice some problems with blurry images in low light, though. You can work around some of this unit's image quality problems because of its 9.0 megapixels of resolution, which is large enough for prints of about 16-by-20 inches.

For wide-angle photography, the FinePix S9100 excels when compared to most other digital cameras, regardless of price range. The FinePix S9100's 10.7X zoom lens has a 35mm lens equivalent of 28mm-300mm. Most other digital camera lenses start at 35mm or 38mm, rather than 28mm. Fujifilm also offers an optional wide-angle conversion lens (which costs about $150) that fits over the end of this model's standard lens and allows for shooting at 22mm.

This unit's 10.7X zoom lens is handy for shooting close-up photos, but because of the FinePix S9100's wide-angle capabilities, this lens doesn't quite match the zoom performance that you'd typically find in a 10.7X zoom lens (although for us, that's an acceptable trade-off for receiving some wide-angle options). Unlike many advanced-level digital cameras, you cannot swap lenses with the FinePix S9100. You can, however, add a flash unit through the hot shoe.

We really like the focus and zoom rings, which are similar to what you'd find on a traditional 35mm film camera, on the FinePix S9100's lens.

Our field research suggested that the FinePix S9100's response times were okay. You can shoot your first photo about 1 second after pressing the power button, which is very good. Shutter lag ranges from about 0.5-1 second, with better performance occurring in better lighting conditions. Shot-to-shot delays were a little disappointing, ranging from 2-3 seconds; using a flash extended the delays beyond 3 seconds.

The FinePix S9100's 2.0-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) should be larger, especially considering the large size of this camera body. But Fujifilm offsets its smaller-than-average LCD by making the screen very bright and sharp. You can swivel and tilt the screen away from the camera body to achieve some flexibility in shooting angles. The FinePix S9100 uses an electronic viewfinder (EVF) for framing photos, which won't appeal to everyone. At least this model's EVF does a good job of displaying about 100 percent of the shot; some EVFs don't display the entire frame.

Finally, Fujifilm offers plenty of manual-control and automatic features with this model, allowing you plenty of flexibility when shooting photos (although its manual-control features lag well behind those of most high-priced models). The FinePix S9100 is a very good "sandwich" camera: It fits nicely between less expensive point-and-shoot digital cameras and pricier digital single-lens reflex models. Its overall feature set is good for a sub-$600 camera and outstanding for a $400 camera. If you can find a good deal on this model, it will be a very good choice for a photographer with some experience.


Pros: Great value, overall image quality is good, high resolution, some wide-angle capabilities, works well in automatic mode, LCD can swivel
Cons: Camera body is large, no image stabilization, LCD could be larger, EVF won't appeal to everyone

Warranty
1 year, limited